First, let’s get this straight – especially on Super Bowl Eve – America really likes its football. That’s the non-European variety. But they also like them some auto racing too – at least more than they do the NBA or NHL. The results of the 30th annual Harris Poll for most popular sports in America found that, for 2013, the NFL, unsurprisingly, topped the list with a whopping 35% of poll respondents identifying pro football as their favorite sport. College football was third at 11% so that makes the sport of football the favorite for nearly half the American nation. In between them, barely holding on to second, was baseball at 14% and then, coming in at fourth – just off a podium finish – was auto racing at 7%. Auto racing had the advantage of including Formula One, NASCAR, IndyCar, the Rolex 24, LeMans, whatever. The NBA was next at 6% followed by the NHL at 5%. The poll was conducted in mid-December 2013.
This is the 10th consecutive year that auto racing has finished ahead of both the NBA and NHL and 29th consecutive year the NFL has finished on top as the most popular American sport.